- Bluesky has decided to leave Mississippi in response to the New Age Verification Law
- According to the law, social networks platforms must verify the ages of all users before giving them access
- People in Mississippi can continue accessing Bluesky falsifying their IP address with a VPN
Bluesky has decided Leave Mississippi in response to the law of verification of the new era, which now requires that social networks platforms verify the age of each user before granting them access.
Elon Musk’s rival X warns that the new requirements “would fundamentally change the way users access Bluesky”, while they open to privacy and security challenges that would affect smaller suppliers in particular.
Therefore, as of Friday, August 22, 2025, Bluesky is blocking all Traffic of the Mississippi IP addresses. However, this means that state -based users can resort to the best VPN services to continue using the application.
“We do not make this decision lightly,” Bluesky wrote in his official announcement, while ensuring that child safety remains a central priority. However, “we believe that this law creates challenges that go beyond its child security goals and create significant barriers that limit freedom of expression and damage smaller platforms and emerging technologies.”
Being a decentralized platform, the block is applied only to the Bluesky application built in the AT protocol. “Other applications and services may choose to respond differently,” explains the supplier.
Why does Bluesky care about the Mississippi age verification approach?
According to Mississippi HB1126 Law, which was confirmed by the United States Supreme Court on August 14, all social media platforms must verify that each user accessing the platform is over 18 years old and obtains the parents’ consent for all children who seek to use the application.
The law also requires technology suppliers to identify and monitor all users of adolescents and children. Fines for non -compliance can reach up to $ 10,000 per user.
“Building the required verification systems, the parents’ consent workflows and compliance infrastructure would require significant resources that our small team cannot save as we invest in the development of tools and security characteristics for our global community,” explains Bluesky.
However, the economic burden is only half the story.
Bluesky is also concerned that the “broad scope of the law” can affect all citizens in Mississippi (not only minor) to use their favorite platforms, negatively impacting their right to freedom of expression and access to information.
The supplier also warns against privacy implications that could be derived from the collection and storage of such confidential information about all users, as well as tracking minors online.
Unfortunately, Bluesky is not available in Mississippi at this time, due to a new state law that requires age verification for all users. While it is intended for child security, we believe that this law raises broader challenges and creates significant barriers that limit freedom of expression and damage smaller platforms like ours.
– @Bsky.app ( @bsky.app.bsky.social) 2025-08-26t14: 19: 50.674z
Age controls are not the real problem here either. Bluesky was in fact one of the first suppliers to enforce age verification rules in the United Kingdom.
However, there is a substantial difference between the two laws.
According to the United Kingdom online Security Law, Bluesky and Bluesky suppliers must verify the age of users only to access the content that is considered legal but harmful.
“Mississippi’s law, on the contrary, would prevent everyone from accessing the site, adolescents and adults, unless they deliver confidential information, and once they do, the law in Mississippi requires Bluesky to monitor users,” explains the supplier.
Can a VPN help?
The Bluesky application is now configured to block access to all Mississippi IP addresses “until the legal challenges for this law are resolved,” explains the supplier.
However, a virtual private network (VPN) could help you return online. A VPN is a security software that not only figure all its Internet connections, but also fails its IP address redirizing its traffic through one of its international servers.
Therefore, if you are in Mississippi and you want to continue accessing Bluesky, all you need to do is connect to a VPN server based on which the application is available.
However, remember that you use only reliable and safe services to ensure that your data remains safe. At the time of writing, NordvPN is the main recommendation to PakGazette. If you are not yet willing to pay for a subscription, I suggest that you consult our best free VPNS guide, with PriviVPN and Proton VPN today.
